Howdy folks, sorry we are late, but RL totally gets in the way sometimes! Anyways, PAX has come and gone, Avid has the PAX pox, and we have an episode for you! Today we’d like you to meet one of our favorite guildies, Cirinde Fitch. Join us and her as we look at what happened in WildStar in the last couple weeks of August.

You can always listen to our podcast over on iTunes, and visit the Mognation website for the episode and complete show notes with links!

Also, of note…

Such a fantastic time we had hosting our favorite composer, Jeff Kurtenacker! Speaking of which, did you buy Volume 2 of the soundtrack yet? It’s on sale RIGHT NOW! Go on, we’ll be here when you get back!

You can always listen to our podcast over on iTunes, and visit the Mognation website for the episode and complete show notes with links!

Quick Blaugust Update

So my goal for Blaugust is to try to blog three times a week to get myself onto more of a schedule. I missed out last week, with only two posts, but I started a bit late due to a crazy work schedule, and then a crazy weekend ensued.

I’m trying not to stress myeslf out about it—stuff happens, and this work project has priority over almost everything else. (I’ve made concessions for my sanity with a bit of gaming during dinner, and I ran two Mythics in WoW last night.) But I’m proud of myself for getting back into it, and I’m enjoying blogging again, even if it’s only in a limited way.

Anyway, one of the things I’m doing with Blaugust is posting a snippet to Wildcast (which is a WildStar podcast for the unknowing) when it releases. Thanks to Avid for setting up the notes and the posts over at Mognation, and for being the ever-stalwart host. I figure it’s fair to post, though, because of how much work goes into editing the audio after we record. I bow down to you folks who do this thing weekly!

Wildcast Episode 93 – Hanging With Maggie

Howdy folks! WildStar has a Steam page, which means things are heating up! Even though we had a fog of technical difficulties to cut through, make sure to listen to this episode, or you’ll be sorry you mist it!

For the full show notes and to listen to the podcast, please visit Mog Nation Gaming, or add us to your podcast reader via iTunes!

This week we discuss the Steam release, Arcterra, the new tutorial up on the PTR, some cash shop things, the old and new DevConnects, and more news!

For our community section we take a look at items including Wildweave, ThaydFest4, GamerPhix, RP, and tattoos.

Housing focuses on some new plushies, the WildStar House Tours 50th Episode Celebration, a new monthly contest, and “painting” via housing items!

For our podcast round up, we shout out to /Yell, Aggrochat, and a new guy on the block: SGT Solj.

Cast choice is always fun, as usual! (I also give a shoutout to Geek to Geek cast!)

Sandrian over at Aeternus Gaming is doing this personal challenge that she’s labeled Sunday Scale. What she’s doing is something I am also doing—weighing in on the first Sunday of every month and rewarding myself accordingly for hitting a goal. I found that weekly just doesn’t work for me and stresses me out and defeats the purpose of losing weight, so I was going to go down to once-a-month anyway. But, I felt that we could at least support each other, and hopefully make it a little bit easier!

I’m going to be super candid with you guys about this. First, this is a really tough topic to handle. I am overweight. I know I am. It’s something I struggle with thanks to various heath conditions. But there are so many reasons that I want to lose it, and I’m going to make myself do it. My current weight isn’t a pretty number.

I’ve tried various fad diets and programs and have done pretty much everything that “the experts” tell you to do. But it doesn’t always work for everybody. And for now, I’m going with what I can do both realistically and emotionally.

My goal is to lose 4 pounds a month. That averages a pound a week if I do it right. That’s a pretty healthy and steady weight loss that any doctor would be happy about. Something that Chaide has been trying to get me to do is to get clothes that flatter me better and make me feel better about myself (in hopes of boosting my self-confidence and therefore my moods, which will in turn make it a little easier to lose more weight). So, I’m going to do it. Monthly, I will buy an item I want from my wishlist over at ModCloth. If I meet my goal, I will allow myself to get a second item of clothing (or an accessory, pair of shoes, etc.).

The stipulation to this is that I need to clean out my current clothes collection (no more keeping three boxes of “it might fit someday!” clothes). I’m allowed to keep certain things—costumes, items that are a family heirloom, very-well made/name brand clothes I picked up (like two name-brand dresses I picked up at Goodwill for a great price). Same goes for jewelry, handbags, shoes, etc. If I want to buy that second item as not a piece of clothing, then I need to be sure that everything else is purged.

I think it’s a fair compromise and reward system, no? I’m still rewarding myself for doing my best (and filling out my professional wardrobe which is severely lacking), and if I hit my goal, I get something extra.

Star Wars: The Podcast Awakens

I told you guys I’d keep you in the loop when the next episodes of Wildcast come out. Well, the next episode is out! And it has absolutely nothing to do with WildStar at all!

Avid put this image together. Isn’t it awesome?!

Avid has a friend in the 501st Legion who joined us for this episode, and Behalter put together the awesome intro. We talk spoilers galore, so you’ve been warned. And I delve into my theory on Phasma, which I hope is true to a degree (at least!)! Like so many others, I am so pumped for the next installment, and I want to go see it again. I’m also super excited for Rogue One. I just hope that the momentum generated within this story can keep itself going with the director changes, but I have high hopes for Episode 8.

Other Bits

I’ve also picked up some writing over at MMOGames.com, so that is part of the silence over here. I’m also still writing for QueueTimes (you can actually expect some of my Let’s Play videos of Shadowrun Returns later this week over there!), and catching up with Blogs of Nexus over at WildStar Datacube, now that I have finally conquered my sinus infection!

Work has been seriously busy as well, and with the changes to where cubes are now located and the new open floor plan (bleh), it has become much less efficient to blog during my lunch hour, so I’ll need to figure something out. Possibly writing in a Google Doc? Come February it will be a little bit easier. Chaide and I had a deal that if I could keep blogging semi-regularly for a year I could purchase a domain and some space and get a self-hosted WordPress. So there will be that come February where there will be a blogging lull to get everything off of Blogger and onto WP, etc.

I also ordered a Plum Paper Planner (I’ll probably be that weird person and write a first impressions post!) that I’m expecting at the end of the month to help me schedule my time a little bit better with all of these obligations, plus trying to fit in a bit of exercise every day. The good thing about moving offices is that where I’m at now has an easy way to walk around the building to track exactly a mile, so I can do a quick half mile in the morning, and a half mile before I leave sort of thing. Small doses, y’know?

It really does feel good to blog, so I’m hoping to keep up with it a little bit more now that I’ve gotten over the “I should write something…” mood.

Get in touch with Frackwell:
WildStar Forums
In Game – Slade Frackwell

Want to be a part of Yardcore Nexus? Contact me with your character’s name on Entity and we’ll set up a time!

Wildcast Podcast Ep. 78

If this title seems familiar, it’s because, well, I’ve used it before… sorta. I hopped onto Episode 77 of Wildcast to discuss ThaydFest, as I linked to in my November Gaming Review post, where I talked a lot about what I’d done relating to my goals, oddly enough.

Wildcast Ep. 78: Winterfest is Here!

And I’m excited to say that I’m back again on Episode 78… as the third official co-host for the podcast! So if you’re into Wildstar, check us out! This episode we talk about Winterfest, cash shop pricing, and more. Next episode will be out on January 15th, so keep your ears out, and I’ll be posting a link to it on the blog, as well.

Finding images for these posts is kinda difficult…

WildStar Goals

FFXIV Goals

TSW

Thoughts

Wildcast’s newest episode is out, and you can listen to Avidguru, Dahk, and me talk about all manner of things related to WildStar including ThaydFest II, Drop 5, and the Ravaging of Arboria! If you play WildStar and don’t listen to the podcast yet, you should! Avid and Behalter are awesome, and lots of fun.

Check out Episode 61!

Yardcore Nexus

I recorded the first Yardcore Nexus last night with Cirinde, who was kind enough to volunteer to be the first person.

I’m not too fond of the video quality, though, based on how many issues I was having with even getting the video to record (grr!), it’s not too bad. I’m in the process of uploading it, so you will see it on the blog very soon.

Expect to see it posted once a week for as long as I have volunteers (as Tribute).

Weekly Plans

Last night I also got pulled into a normal Malgrave Trail, which was fun! Tonight is some achievements in Stormtalon’s Lair (normal) and running some new players/guildies through it as well. Tomorrow will hopefully be a bit of TSW before a Veteran Malgrave Trail. As for the rest of the week, I’m not rightly sure. But whatever we end up doing will be lots of fun!

Last Sunday (the 15th), Black Dagger Society and a bunch of other guilds (in particular, Blazing Saddles) and folks on the Entity server (Exile side) put together an awesome WildStar event called ThaydFest! We had a bunch of people come out for all the events and hang out and just be awesome together.

We held a housing contest called Lifestyles of Nexus where judges went around to folks’ houses and we came up with winners, whose plots are pretty damn awesome! You can see videos if you go look at the winners.

Twitter was afoot with tons of pictures and streams and videos and comments. It was so great to see the WildStar community coming together for a shared experience like that.

I spent a bunch of time going to as many events as I could, including the Fight Club hosted by Blazing Saddles, and then I was a pacer for the Footrace. I also attended the Fashion contest and took a video!

Chaide ended up winning one of the categories for the contest, and won a character sketch by the amazing Typrop. He’s very excited, and I’ll be sure to post it in the blog when we get it.

WildCast Podcast

I had the pleasure of joining Avidguru and Dahk (who was filling in for Behalter) for the WildCast Podcast, episode 61. (It is not up, yet, but I’ll be posting a link as soon as it goes live.) We discussed things such as ThaydFest, INVASION: Nexus (aka Drop 5), The Ravaging of Arboria, and just goofed off a little bit. It’s a family friendly podcast, so I’m proud of myself for keeping my sailor’s mouth in check except for saying “shit” at some point, which I’m sure Avid is going to gleefully bleep out.

Yardcore: Nexus

So, I recorded all of the videos for the winners in the Lifestyles contest, and I had a blast doing so. So much so that I’m going to be starting a weekly YouTube video where I sit down in Skype or TeamSpeak with a house creator, and interview them while we tour their plot for about thirty minutes or so. I’m aiming to have the first one completed for the first week of April, and continue them from there.

If you play WildStar and would like to volunteer your house for this, let me know, or comment on the post I’ve going on the official forums.

Monitors Ahoy (hoy)!

On Monday, Chaide and I met up at the Best Buy after work and purchased a second monitor for the both of us (as well as a PS4 for his graduation present, because he graduates in MAY!!!). After getting them home and trying to set them up, we promptly figured out that our graphics card didn’t have a VGA hookup, and the monitors didn’t come with the DVI cord to hookup the video card. -_- Why do you make things so difficult, companies? Why not just include both cords? *sigh*

So anyway, I drove back to the store, which luckily isn’t very far away (maybe 10 minutes) to buy two stinking DVI cords to hook up and set up our monitors. But, WE HAVE SECOND MONITORS!! I’m so excited!! Here’s what my new set up looks like.

Thursday night was not a good night for tech, however. While I was walking the dog I dropped my phone (which is always in a case) and the LCD underneath the glass screen shattered. The nuts and bolts were still working (I was still getting notifications, etc.) but the screen wasn’t working. Luckily, there’s a place nearby work that gives a discount to folks at my place of employment, and I had it fixed in about forty-five minutes after I got there. Needless to say, when it first happened, I was a wreck for the rest of the night, and part of Friday.

Today’s plans consist of some FFXIV (both before we head out and maybe after we get back), a guild meeting/RP in WildStar, and then some tabletop gaming with some friends, and possibly a Kodra sighting (meaning, he might show up to tabletop)!